OK, if the 20th century was considered the "American Century" I would guess a quick look back through those decades would probably define the American character pretty well:
1900 - 1910: Populists like William Jennings Bryan and Progressives like Teddy Roosevelt advocate expanding government to keep a check on corporations (and especially railroad trusts).
1910 - 1920: More wins for progressives... Wilson becomes President, suffragists are gaining momentum (and eventually win in '20), the Constitution is amended to allow for an income tax, and we jump in and win WW1. Meanwhile, Shoeless Joe and seven of his teammates are banned from baseball for throwing the WS.
1920 - 1930: Hey, the flappers were cool and all, but this is what happens when "the business of America is business" as '20s President Calvin Coolidge said... it ends with a crash. Leopold and Loeb kill a kid for fun and Dayton TN fines John Scopes $100 for using A Civic Biology as a HS science text.
1930 - 1940: Happy Days are Here Again. A New Deal puts Americans back to work. Frank Capra's making movies about outsiders serving in the U.S. Senate and Americans get behind a little underdog horse named Seabiscuit.
1940 - 1950: "Rosie" is at the factory building airplanes, we beat Hitler and the bad guys, Harry gives 'em hell, and network TV is created. Meet the Press starts its run, Jackie Robinson plays for the Dodgers, veterans go to college thanks to the G.I. bill, and Mr. Potter is Capra's new on-screen villain defeated soundly by George Bailey, the "richest man in town."
1950 - 1960: Elvis does Ed Sullivan, Ike begins work on the Interstate system, McCarthy thinks we're all Reds, the Warren court says separate is inherently unequal, Rosa Parks won't give up her seat. McDonalds and Disneyland open their doors, Leave it to Beaver is on TV, James Dean's on the big screen, and school-children are hiding under desks to avoid being blown up in a nuclear war.
1960 - 1970: Camelot begins... and ends. LBJ starts a war on poverty. Bull Connor turns the dogs on kids in Birmingham, MLK has a dream, Civil Rights and Voting Rights are signed. We get caught in a jungle, college kids worry they'll get drafted and decide to start a "revolution." Hippies head to San Fran or party at Woodstock, King and Kennedy are killed 2 months apart, Richard Daley goes up against Abbie Hoffman, and Dick Nixon goes to the White House. Oh, and we become the first nation to put a man on the moon.
1970 - 1980: The Watergate needs better security. Americans lose faith in "government." Tricky Dick resigns. The Godfather's in the theater, Mary Tyler Moore's on TV, disco has its embarrassing chapter in our history, and SNL goes on the air. The man from Plains wears a sweater in the oval office, fails to get some hostages out of Iran, and turns over the keys to the WH to a guy who seems to share that Calvin Coolidge philosophy.
1980 - 1990: Greed is Good, Michael Jackson moonwalks, formerly booming industrial towns become ghost towns providing Bruce Springsteen with unlimited lyrics and Michael Moore with his breakout film. Coke changes its recipe twice, John Hughes speaks for the kiddies, Reagan wants that wall gone, Don Johnson has stubble.
1990 - 2000: Seinfeld certainly speaks for a decade about "nothing." The Boomers get the keys to the WH, the nation debates important issues like "school uniforms" and V-chips for television. OJ's acquitted - the biggest piece of the decade long sensational crime obsession that also included the Menendez brothers, Lorena Bobbitt, Tonya Harding and Joey Buttafuco. Cal beats Gehrig's consecutive game streak (a better baseball story-line than the McGwire - Sosa race), the country takes sides on Starbucks: love it or hate it, and we end with a tie election in Florida.
So, here's what I don't get... if that was the "American Century," why does every stereotype about American Culture seem to come from the '70s on?
'70s: distrust of government. Check!
'80s: unfettered capitalism. Cowboys in charge. Check!
'90s: sensationalist culture. Check!
OK, we usually manage to hang onto baseball and rock-n-roll in the stereotype, but come on... are those the only positives we get to keep from our glory days?